I’ve been in Italy for a good few years now, and my psychoanalysis of the place and its people continues.
Maybe, just maybe, I’m starting to grasp how the Italian mind works. In fact I have written quite a bit on this subject several times including, oddly enough, after I came back from my last summer holiday down in Tuscany and wrote ‘Why Italy is the Way it is.‘
My post entitled ‘Furbo‘ also looks at another aspect of Italian mentality.
When you think about it, Italians do seem to display a strong desire for status, superiority, and that most addictive of drugs, power. Once the desired level of power has been reached, Italians will then jealously guard their positions by any and all means in an attempt to enable them to retain the status, superiority, and power they believe they have managed to attain.
Stop reading, start speaking
Stop translating in your head and start speaking Italian for real with the only audio course that prompt you to speak.
Why is this attraction to power noticeable to me? Well, I guess it’s because the same fixation with power and status is just not as overt back in the UK as it is here.
In Italy, manifestations of Italians’ lust for status are everywhere. From the preponderance of almost garishly uniformed police forces, to use of the ‘Lei’ form, and all the titles which Italians go by – dottore, ingegnere, architetto, and avvocato. Age is also a great indicator of status for Italians, and grey hair commands respect, and the inevitable ‘Lei’ or ‘Voi’ form.
However, there is more, much more.
Part 2 is coming soon.
